HDSLR workflows to save disk space

The Canon 5D brought a great new way of producing videos to us, thanks for that. On the other hand, this also brought a lot of need in disk space, which is not always fun. My latest project was quite big, 3 days of shooting with 2 5Ds, a lot of material, and even more after converting to Apple´s ProRes, ending up with a 1TB hard disk full of stuff. (If you don´t know what i´m talking about, you might want to see this post by vincent laforet (or one of hundreds concerning prores conversion). Here´s just a short post on how to manage your fullHD videostuff, without running out of TB-harddisks every few weeks.

The first problem we face is the ProRes Codec. Nice for editing, but the files get a few times larger than the original .h264 out of the camera. But, we still need them, as .h264 is still horrible for editing. So here´s a great way from Heinz Donaubauer to solve this. Instead of converting fullHD ProRes files for the edit, we just convert ProRes Proxy files, which are much smaller. After we finished our cut, just reconnect the files with the original .h264 files, and you got your edit in fullHD with no loss at all.

After you finished your whole project, you will find your hard disk full of stuff you will not need again, but as we don´t want to delete something… most of the time we keep it. That is why my latest project took 1TB of disk space! I really don´t want to buy another closet for my TB-drives only, and end up searching for a new office … so here is what you can do to reduce your f.e. 100GB project to a maybe 30, 40GB project, done by Peter Salvia:

Of course not every workflow fits every need, so maybe this one is not the right workflow for you. There are lots of ways out there to convert, edit, and manage data … If you know another/a better one, don´t hesitate to post it here in the comments area. We never stop learning new ways, right ;-)

ABOUT CHRISTIAN

I am an international commercial and portrait photographer and filmmaker, based in Vienna, Austria. After finishing tourism school, followed by 4 years in architecture and 12 years as a media professional and radio host, photography and filmmaking were always part of my life and career and are my real passion. Since 2012 i am proud Member of the renowned "Canon Ambassador Programme". I´m teaching photography as well as i´m always learning. Read the full bio here.